Hanna’s expected dousing rains could affect Richmond race

Rex Springston & Tim Pearrell
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: September 3, 2008

The remnants of Tropical Storm Hanna could bring drenching rains to Virginia late this week.

The question is whether the storm will collide with NASCAR in Richmond.

Southern Virginia, particularly the area from Interstate 95 west, could see rain Friday night, and virtually all of Virginia could get doused Saturday, the National Weather Service said.

“We’re looking at this mostly as a positive thing,“ said Bryan Jackson, a weather service meteorologist in Wakefield. Much of Virginia, particularly in Southside, continues to suffer from drought.

But Richmond International Raceway is scheduled to hold NASCAR races this weekend, including the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 Saturday at 8 p.m.

RIR officials said yesterday they are monitoring Hanna, but the weekend’s events “are currently scheduled to run as planned.“

The last time a Saturday-night race at RIR was rained out—the Crown Royal 400 on May 5, 2007—the race started on Sunday at 1:15 p.m.

Hanna, with sustained winds near 65 mph, dumped heavy rains on the Bahamas yesterday.

The storm is expected to hug Florida’s east coast before coming ashore in South Carolina on Friday afternoon or evening as a hurricane, the weather service said.

Over land, the storm would be deprived of its tropical-water energy source and should weaken.

The center of the storm’s remnants should move across the Roanoke area Saturday and quickly head northeast. The rains in Virginia should end by Saturday night, Jackson said.

The forecast could change, Jackson said, as it’s tough to predict the effects of a storm this early.

Two other tropical storms, Ike and Josephine, were strengthening yesterday far out in the Atlantic Ocean.

Meanwhile, the weather service said yesterday that this summer—June through August—was Richmond’s 10th-hottest since record-keeping began in 1880.

The average summer temperature was 78.4 degrees. The highest on record was 79.6 degrees in 1900.

Overall this year, the second-warmest June on record was followed by temperatures near or slightly above average in July and August, the weather service said.

Contact Rex Springston at (804) 649-6453 or .

Staff writer Tim Pearrell contributed to this report.